Monday, May 6, 2013

Monday morning report: 'SWATting,' raw milk, guns, Huckabee and more

* SWATTING ARRIVES IN LITTLE ROCK: Channel 4 reports that the "SWATting" phenomenon — making false 911 reports to draw SWAT teams to home and businesses — was reported recently at a home on Pebble Beach in West Little Rock.

According to a police report the caller said "I woke up bloody, possibly killed my girlfriend and my parents. I'm going to blow up the house. I will blow this whole block up."

Detectives found out that call wasn't made from the home and it was part of a swatting prank.

The suspect hacked into a Skype account, got a number and address from someone living at the home, then made the 911 call through the internet.

* OLD SOUTH DISHING UP FOOD AGAIN: Another in the periodic reports on the Old South restaurant in Russellville, a 60-year fixture. Owners apparently settled unpaid tax issues and were back in business this weekend, Channel 4 reports.

* ABOUT THAT RAW MILK ....: Arkansas just approved legislation allowing small sales of unpasteurized milk at the source. Health concerns were described as overhyped. This just in:

Even under the best circumstances, unpasteurized milk can make people sick, a new report concludes.In one of the biggest outbreaks of campylobacter bacteria seen nationally in recent years, raw milk from a Pennsylvania dairy farm sickened 148 people in four states in January 2012, according to the report. Most campylobacter outbreaks involve a dozen or fewer people.

The report, which details what happened during the outbreak, said the dairy that sold the milk had a permit for selling unpasteurized milk, and had passed all inspections. The farm was among the largest sellers of unpasteurized milk in the state.

* MIKE HUCKABEE'S QUEST FOR 'DISGUSTINGLY PROFITABLE' RADIO SHOW:Arkansas Business' Kate Knable has an interview with Mike Huckabee about his media business. He mentions that he's re-evaluating his syndicated radio show as to cost and benefit, though he says it likely will continue.

* A RIFLE FOR CHILDREN: We had a lot of comment earlier on the story about the killing of a two-year-old girl by an accidental shot from her 5-year-old brother's rifle, a present to the boy a year earlier. Residents of the Kentucky town where this happened aren't too happy about the resulting press attention and seem uninterested in being part of a symbolic statement about firearms. Few want to talk to reporters at all.

“I think it’s nobody else’s business but our town’s,” said a woman leaving a store, who like many people here declined to be interviewed. A woman who answered the phone at the office of John A. Phelps Jr., the chief executive of Cumberland County, whose seat is Burkesville, said, “No, I’m sorry — no more statements,” and hung up.

After the funeral service, two men advanced across North Main Street toward a single television crew present, from the German network RTL, and punched the cameraman, bloodying his face and knocking him down.

Two other men told a newspaper reporter, “If you had any sense, you’d get out of here. You’re next, buddy.”

The child was killed by a single-shot .22 caliber Crickett rifle made expressly for sale to children and marketed in colors of pink and blue. The maker, Keystone Sporting Arms, specializes in firearms for children, also making the Chipmunk rifle. Mother Jones has published archived photos from the gunmaker's website, now removed, showing the weapons. I clipped the selection shown here from that page.

More by Max Brantley

Gary Heathcott the long-time ad and PR man who now lives in San Antonio has sued CJRW, the major ad and PR firm, over its severing of a consulting deal with him last year and asks $1.3 million in actual damages plus unspecified punitive damages.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed numerous judicial ethics complaints against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh because the law exempts Supreme Court members, even for acts committed as a judge covered by the law. In short: Bart O'Kavanaugh is above the law.

Brett Rains of 40/29 is tweeting from the Capitol that the Department of Human Services is slowing its push for cuts in reimbursements for home health aides that critics have said could force many people into more expensive nursing home and force companies that provide the services out of business.

Little Rock police have identified two women found dead of gunshot wounds in an SUV parked next to a vacant trailer in a mobile home park at 11500 Chicot Road.

Slideshows

Arkansas vs Ole Miss at War Memorial stadium in Little Rock, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. After leading for much of the game, Arkansas lost 37-33 when Ole Miss scored the game winning Touchdown with less that 2 minutes left.